Disruption between then and now/memory and presence, dulcimer, psaltery, ‘cellos, violas and violin embroider radio, static, stray voices and electronics… ‘a perfect blind’ is the second album by drøne (Mark Van Hoen & Mike Harding) with an array of guest artists, including label supremo Anna von Hausswolff, dreamer and composer Paul Haslinger, field recordist and sound designer Charlie Campagna and Touch artists Bethan Kellough & Philip Jeck. Strings by Seattle-based Marie Takahashi and Oleg Belyaev are also layered into this complex and perhaps more musical offering. Moving in all directions, ‘a perfect blind’ continues where ‘reversing into the future’ [pomperipossa records, 2016] left off;

'a perfect blind' was conceived and designed in Los Angeles with organ recordings from London (at Union Chapel), short wave radio, treated voices and other archaic sound sources.

A stunning front cover image by Maria von Hausswolff and miss-taken typography by Nico embrace this sense of dislocation; as the mediaeval language which enfolds our collapsing 19th Century institutions fails to find relevance, our sense of entrapment in the old is accompanied by an assault on the senses. The destabilising effect of “post-truth" adds to our sense of unbelonging, of being elsewhere, observers not participants.

‘a perfect blind’ is the term used for the best possible observation point where the viewer is unseen by the object of interest. Is this the best place to be? Memories which slowly fade away, also reverse back from the past shoving us into the future...

What they said about 'reversing into the future', released also on Pomperipossa Records in 2016:

"The collisions of these sounds where out of the hands of their creators. When composing, there would be no way to fully predict or control the result. Rather than the paths wandered by so much of contemporary Electroacoustic Music, I was hearing the result of an adventure, and risk." [The Hum]

“…hurtle we do on broad beams of warm synth past pizzicato pulses, snaking sines, sparkling glass, telecom crackles and radio leakage towards the audio equivalent of a black hole. Constantly brimming with energy, yet filled with rich contrasts, the parade manages to be both musical and non-musical and seems different on each subsequent playback, maintaining its curiosity and charm." [The Quietus]

“...parched, summoning a buzzing electrical field of layered tones embedded with fragmentary melodies and prone to melt and squeeze with an amorphous, tarmac-prickling quality that gives off noxious, hypnagogic gases. It could be used to soundtrack some sci-fi flick filmed in the valleys below them…" [Boomkat]

'reversing into the future' is still available on Bandcamp: thisstrangelife.bandcamp.com
See also 'schubert dip' - music from the classical period given the drøne treatment

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Released by Pomperipossa Records
Published by Field Music
pomperipossarecords.com | field.nu/drone
drøne@field.nu | @dronefield

Further information/reviewsFor more information, please visit this product's webpage.